Hi again,

I too am worried more about your suspicion the key in the crank pulley is not locked into the crank sprocket. If the motor runs at all, you have to be close, and there's no reason not to go ahead and check your work to be sure it is exact.

Here's how to do that:

1) Check the crank pulley. In this step you want to verify you torqued the crank bolt with the key properly seated. Put your 15/16 or 24mm socket on a ratchet and turn the crank bolt clockwise until the index mark lines up with 0 top dead center (TDC) on the timing cover. Note, the 0 is not on the little tab adjacent to the pulley, like the other marks indicating 10 and 20 degrees before TDC. Photo below is just to remind you of what the cover looks like. TDC refers only to the piston - not the cam lobes or anything else in the engine.



Now, remove the #1 spark plug. Get a popsicle stick or chopstick and feel the top of the cylinder through the spark plug hole. Rock the crank back and forth with the ratchet, around that zero mark, while feeling the piston, and assure yourself the mark lines up exactly at 0 when the piston is highest. If so, it is a good bet you did lock in the little nib. But if the pulley seems to wobble, then it might be very close but not in. Fix that first.

2) Now that you've determined TDC, put the plug back in. The next verification is cam timing, which is easier and more clearcut. Open the top timing belt cover and look at the dot on the cog (sprocket) in relation to the dot on the plastic back behind it. It must match. It must match when the crank pulley is at zero. In fact you'll not have to worry about observing the cam lobes inside the cam cover, because that dot on the cog assures you the valves on #1 are closed when it is lined up with the mark on the back cover. Works the same for the rope trick -- if the dot on the top sprocket is lined up, the valves are shut.

3) Next is the intermediate shaft (I-shaft), the large cog down low on the right. That dot must match its corresponding mark on the timing cover. That one can be hard to see, so the photo above provides a way to count the teeth between the top sprocket and it without removing any more parts like the bottom cover. Of course, if it does not line up, and you need to adjust it, you'll have to compress the tensioner spring, and then slip the belt to the correct teeth on the cogs.

On the other hand, if the motor runs well enough to drive safely, it won't be harmed by being out of time a small amount for a trip to town. This motor is non-interference, meaning the valves will never collide with the pistons as would happen in most of today's engines.


--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Remember what Cardinal Cooke once said:
"A man would do nothing if he waited until such time as no one would find fault with what he has done". - originally John Henry Cardinal Newman